Karen Pence: ‘All of us could benefit from art therapy’

WASHINGTON » Karen Pence, the vice president’s wife, said recently that art therapy, a little-known mental health profession that she has championed for years, is the issue she will highlight during the Trump administration.

She said in a speech in Florida that her goals are to raise awareness about art therapy, help people understand that it’s available for everyone and encourage more people, particularly students, to choose it as a career.

Such therapists are trained to help people use all forms of art to cope with life’s challenges.

“All of us could benefit from art therapy,” said Mrs. Pence, who spoke at Florida State University because it has a respected art therapy program.

She has a master’s in art education, taught for 25 years, including as an elementary school art teacher, and is a watercolor artist. But Mrs. Pence said she didn’t become aware of art therapy until about a decade ago when she visited a program for pediatric cancer patients in Washington. She since has met with numerous art therapists and observed programs in the United States and abroad.

“Art therapy is changing lives,” she said.

She told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview before her formal announcement that she didn’t “think a lot of people understand the difference between therapeutic art and art therapy.” Blabbing to a girlfriend can be therapeutic, she explained, but it is not the same as formal therapy.

As passionate as she is about lifting art therapy’s profile, Mrs. Pence is interested in several other issues.

One is helping military families, especially spouses. Her only son, Michael, is in the Marines.

MANUEL BALCE CENETA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, shows her artwork during an interview with The Associated Press in her office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington.